It’s crazy but it’s true! It takes courage to choose joy!
It is much more expedient to live the life society expects us to live.
It’s easer to follow the path our parents are pushing us towards.
It takes courage to stay true to oneself.
It takes courage to choose joy even if that means leaving a good job.
It takes courage to do things that may disappoint people!
But the thing is….
Beyond the discomfort
Beyond going against the grain
Beyond all the excuses
Going after your joy may actually make you happy.
(My definition of joy is doing or experiencing tings that make your soul sing.)
Sharing a part of a speech by Maya Angelou next:
“Courage is the most important of all virtues. Because without courage, you cannot practice any other value consistently.
You see, you cannot be consistently kind, or fair, humain, or generous… not without courage!
If you don’t have courage, sooner or later, you’ll stop…because the threat is to much… the difficulty is to high… the challenge is too great!
So go ahead pick up the battle! Do the hard things because they are right!
<Right> may not be efficient,
it may not be expedient,
but it will satisfy your soul.
It brings you the kind of protection that bodyguards cannot give you.
Try to be the best human being that you can possibly be!
Try to live your life in such a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue, and inertia, and timidity!
Pickup the battle and make it a better world!
This is your life!
This is your world!
You have a choice!”
Powerful! Right?
Now a little story of how I got to understand that the point of living is to create joy:
My dad passed away before he got to enjoy life.
He rarely felt joy.
He worked really hard, was stressed out most of the time,
he never took vacations.
and to me… it seemed like
he was saving enjoyment for retirement.
His passing hit hard for many obvious reasons…
but one thing that it taught me,
the silver lining to a terrible and unavoidable life moment,
is that I learned a valuable lesson:
If I want to live a joyful life, I need to do it right NOW!
That’s Me Time!
This is why I am here.
And if you don’t know what joy is, or how to start choosing joy… take a look at these 2 short videos I recorded (under 5 mins).
Video 1
Is up at the top.
Video 2
And just to be clear!
I am not preaching for anyone to quit their job and start chasing butterflies… or do professional birdwatching. You can start with small choices where you intentionally pause and think "Which one of these choices will bring me more joy?” and then you have to choose the joyful one and commit to it.
Is there a good reason to NOT add more joy in our lives?
NO, but we have plenty of excuses anyway!
But who are these excuses serving?
Not us!
Not our happiness.
P.S. Some Joywork
(“Joywork” is my version of homework)
I dare you to choose joy at least one time this week. See how that impacts your mood and day in general. If you would, do share your learnings in the comments so we can inspire one another.
Wishing you a joyful week!
With love,
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